Tuesday, October 6, 2009

South~South! A Salutation for Social Justice & Ethical Democracy

South~South! (copyright)

Goats taught me Social Justice!

Culture-based curriculum is indispensable to ethical development throughout the Global South

I first experienced, on the ground in Srinagar, Kashmir, India the critical realization that Social Medicine is an essential person-centered, community-based strategy for prevention, amelioration, healing and wellness.

Where? Everywhere, but especially throughout the Global South. Especially for the economically disadvantaged for whom Poverty is a preventable Illness.

Garibon Ki Bimari, as one such economically disadvantaged, oppressed yet dignified person explained to me on Zero Bridge in Srinagar.

1. The livelihood security social justice approach to healing centers on patient self-diagnosis combined with the wise expertise of holistically trained doctors, constitutes an urgent priority throughout the Global South, where hunger, malnutrition cause a wide range of preventable physiological and psychological health problems.

Social Medicine as practiced by Dr. Arshad Arif and his colleagues is a way forward from Togo to Thalassery, Somalia to Srinagar.

2. Collecting data on INDIGENOUS CULTURAL KNOWLEDGES and developing a Taxonomy of Sustainable Indigenous Practices based on these studies can help us develop a template of wholly DO-ABLE projects that can have long term benefit throughout the Global South

South~South, (copyrighted) Everybody!

Dr. Chithra Karunakaran
City University of New York
Ethical Democracy As Lived Practice
http://EthicalDemocracy.blogspot.com
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